George Soros behind Missouri Amendment 1

Doug Kneibert | Commentary

Why would Soros want to disguise his role in Clean Missouri? To answer that question, consider just a few of the beneficiaries of his generosity and some of the causes he supports: Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League, the American Civil Liberties Union, EMILY’S List, numerous anti-Israel groups, income redistribution, anti-military policies, open borders, the LGBT agenda, radical environmental groups, anti-capitalist organizations — the list goes on and on. If your politics are hard-left, chances are good you’ve received money from George Soros.

While Soros donates to hundreds of leftist groups, one theme runs through it all: Elect more Democrats, and the more liberal they are the better. He wants to see a “Progressive America,” and Clean Missouri is one way he hopes to achieve that.

That Soros attempted to conceal his hand in Clean Missouri is reason enough to oppose it, since his very first act was aimed at deceiving the voters. But the subterfuge doesn’t stop there. The amendment is being cast as governmental “ethics reform,” but the real purpose of Clean Missouri is to radically change how state legislative districts are drawn in Missouri.

Bipartisan commissions in both the state House of Representatives and Senate traditionally have handled that job. Clean Missouri would take redistricting out of the hands of our elected officials and turn it over to an outside, unaccountable “demographer” who supposedly is “nonpartisan.“ That person would redraw legislative districts so as to have equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats in them.

That would lead to “gerrymandering on steroids,” as one observer put it. Would you like to see a long tube running from Pettis County to Kansas City or Columbia to suck in more Democrats? Don’t laugh, it could happen. Democrats probably favor Clean Missouri, but they should be careful what they wish for, as the political shoe could be on the other foot someday.

The U.S. Supreme Court has required only that legislative districts be equal in population. It has never required that they be politically balanced.

Most Missourians have nothing in common with George Soros’s radical politics, and that includes this transparently partisan constitutional amendment masquerading as a political reform.

Clean Missouri is a Trojan horse dreamed up by Soros and his left-wing allies who aren’t happy with how Missourians vote, and are hoping we’re too dumb to recognize what they’re up to. Voters should prove them wrong on Nov. 6.